Book Babes

The Book Babes return from a week-long trip to Rancho La Puerta, a health spa in Tecate, Mexico, where they gave a workshop on reading and writing. 

Hi Margo,

Welcome home. Amazing, isn't it, that while we were sequestered in the hills, the world kept creating more grist for our mills and -- for me, at least -- jacking up the level of outrage. As if the scandals at The New York Times weren't enough, now we have the embarrassing sight of TV journalists groveling at the feet of Jessica Lynch, hoping to be the first to tell her story. Which may or may not be the story we were told it was, given the in-bedded nature of the Iraqi war coverage. Hype, not truth, is the more sanctified reality these days...

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Grumble, grumble. However, I come not to bury journalists, but to honor them. My objective today is to point out the contrast between the ethical backstops in newspaper and the free-for-all in book publishing. There, truth isn't even an ideal, or so current events would suggest. Rumors continue to circulate about how disgraced NY Times reporter Jayson Blair will take his grievances public in book form -- if it's accompanied by the proper advance, that is. Then there's the case of Rick Bragg, the Times' superstar and established author. He resigned post-Blair after it was discovered that he had taken credit for reporting he hadn't done (call it the "omniscient byline" problem)... Well, in the wake of his departure, I checked up on Bragg's big-bucks contract with Knopf to see if his new status had affected his standing at that esteemed publishing house. Alas! The agreement remains intact, untouched by human hands (or even lawyers'!). According to Knopf spokesman Paul Bogarts, the writer is still on track to produce two books, a nonfiction tale about a cotton-mill town in the South and a novel. And the fact that he's ditched the paper (or, should I say, the paper has ditched him) is a plus: Bogarts says that Bragg's audience knows him as a chronicler of his family, not as a reporter of The New York Times, and "we're thrilled that he can dedicate more time to the writing of his books."   

Well. Is there no shame? Does it make sense that Bragg is no longer credible enough to appear in the pages of the Not-So-Gray Lady, but unbesmirched for a writing career that nests his words between the covers of a hardback? I'm not here to pick on Bragg, of course, but to wonder at the gaping hole between two value systems, that of the newspaper world and book publishing. Has the once-genteel world of books collapsed under the weight of commercial pressures and the moral relativism of our age? If nothing else, the Gray Lady gets a pat on the back for recognizing the old-fashioned notion that reputation is everything. Meanwhile, why does book publishing seems hell-bent on making an unholy alliance with spin and celebrity? Forgive me for sounding like William Bennett, but we journalists are Truth Seekers, no? 

Margo Hammond

Hey, El (I feel I can call you that, fellow teacher and spa buddy),

After spending last weekend reading the stack of newspapers that piled up during my absence, I  share your outrage over the book world's "unholy alliance." While we were gone, column after column was filled with news of yet another example of how books have become something other than vehicles of communicating the truth: the arrival of Hillary Clinton's "Living History." 

Clinton's memoir isn't a book; it's a media event -- used either by Hillary-haters to bash her ("To label 'Living History' as merely boring would be to owe a groveling apology to Bill Bradley," writes Weekly Standard's Matt Labash) or by Hillary-lovers to promote her (Katha Pollitt in The Nation: "One hears so much from people who hate Hillary, we forget that millions thinks she's great, a self-made working wife and mother who actually managed to turn the routine subordination -- and, in her case, profound humiliations -- of political wifehood into real power."). Of course, the real acid test is this: Will anyone read this book after the media hype dies down? Even Pollitt admits that the book has that "unfortunate, processed-cheese, as-told-to taste."

So, yes, although newspapers are the quintessentially disposable media, the content of that birdcage liner often is held to a higher standard than the words between two covers, even though the bound words are intended for a long shelf life. Of course, truth is hard to come by in any media -- but I think it's about time we stopped letting books get away with skirting it. 

Ellen Heltzel

Margo,

If Hillary's book sells, as it undoubtedly will, it reinforces the willingness to let veracity slide. Publishers plunk down millions on advances to authors like Ms. Clinton, promising the moon or, at least, the inside scoop to readers. They spend scads more for promotion. They dig a deep financial hole, which explains why a relative handful of these books pencil out. (Bill O'Reilly is one of the few exceptions, but then he has a nightly infomercial to lobby "the folks," as he calls them, to buy his books.) Ghost writers typically shape the content, because here again there is no standard: The "omniscient byline," in which the alleged author takes credit for anything he or she likes, is perfectly legit.

In Hillary's case, readers indeed get a whimper, not a bang, for the buck. "Living History" is a prime example of how these books are scripted to achieve desired effects -- say, perpetuate a person's political career -- rather than to tell truths. And reporters either are refused access or wilt in the face of the author's powerful persona. The book critic becomes the party of last resort, letting the text speak and then analyzing its falsehoods. So far, the critical take on Hillary Clinton's book tells us that she remains the fierce protector of her privacy and shaper of her own image, which is what we could expect from any politician. Katharine Graham, the late owner of the Washington Post, used the forum of her autobiography, "Personal History," to speak so honestly and poignantly about her life that she won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for doing so. There's no comparison between "Personal History" and the sound-alike, "Living History." Graham produced a rare gem in a field of stones.